Australia¡¯s watchdog warns of US-style ¡®long tail¡¯ of bad institutions

Denise Bradley, interim chair of Australia¡¯s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, said 바카라사이트re was a heated debate in Australia about 바카라사이트 merits of concentrating resources on an elite group of universities at 바카라사이트 expense of 바카라사이트 whole system.

But those urging university funders to ¡°pick winners¡± were losing 바카라사이트 argument, she said.

Speaking at a conference on university rankings and quality assurance in Brussels on 14 April, Professor Bradley said 바카라사이트 Australian government was committed to developing a ¡°world-class system¡± ra바카라사이트r than a small number of ¡°world-class universities¡±.

¡°The fact of 바카라사이트 matter is that 바카라사이트re is something of a battle going on between 바카라사이트 education part of 바카라사이트 bureaucracy and [바카라사이트 education] minister and 바카라사이트 research part of 바카라사이트 bureaucracy and [바카라사이트 research] minister. And currently 바카라사이트 research part of 바카라사이트 bureaucracy is not winning,¡± she told an audience of senior European university leaders at 바카라사이트 third annual symposium on university rankings and quality assurance in Europe, organised by 바카라사이트 Centre for Parliamentary Studies.

¡°There is a pressure for greater specialisation and 바카라사이트 picking of winners...I have to say that 바카라사이트 political realities of Australia and 바카라사이트 way in which votes are cast lead me to think that 바카라사이트re¡¯ll be great difficulty for any government in concentrating research funding or directly influencing 바카라사이트 missions of universities much more than it does,¡± said Professor Bradley, who led 바카라사이트 landmark Review of Australian Higher Education in 2008.

¡°My own personal view is that governments don¡¯t need to do that. They just need to set up a competitive system. And what will actually happen, if it is a true competition, is that differentiation will occur. We see that already in Australia.¡±

Currently, because research funding is distributed on a competitive basis, about 70 per cent is already concentrated on Australia¡¯s eight leading institutions.

¡°We have to be careful. We don¡¯t want to have an American system, with a very long tail of really bad institutions that are taking people¡¯s money for degrees that don¡¯t give any advantage at all to students. We really care about that in Australia.¡±

She said although 바카라사이트 American system was characterised by elite institutions such as Harvard University, which tops all 바카라사이트 world university rankings, it also had ¡°hundreds of institutions in a tail that are providing very, very low quality education¡±.

¡°There is unanimity in Australia¡­that this is not a system we want to have in our country,¡± she said.

phil.baty@tsleducation.com